Minimally-invasive surgery (MIS), such as laparoscopic surgery, involves techniques intended to reduce tissue damage during a surgical procedure. For example, laparoscopic procedures typically involve creating a number of small incisions in the patient (e.g., in the abdomen), and introducing one or more surgical instruments (e.g., an end effector, at least one camera, etc.) through the incisions into the patient. The surgical procedures may then be performed using the introduced surgical instruments, with the visualization aid provided by the camera.
Generally, MIS provides multiple benefits, such as reduced patient scarring, less patient pain, shorter patient recovery periods, and lower medical treatment costs associated with patient recovery. In some embodiments, MIS may be performed with robotic systems that include one or more robotic arms for manipulating surgical instruments based on commands from an operator. A robotic arm may, for example, support at its distal end various devices such as surgical end effectors, imaging devices, cannulae for providing access to the patient's body cavity and organs, etc.
Robotic surgical systems are generally complex systems performing complex procedures. Accordingly, a user (e.g., surgeons) generally may require significant training and experience to successfully operate a robotic surgical system. Such training and experience is advantageous to effectively plan the specifics of MIS procedures (e.g., determine optimal number, location, and orientation of robotic arms, determine optical number and location of incisions, determine optimal types and sizes of surgical instruments, determine order of actions in a procedure, etc.).
Additionally, the design process of robotic surgical systems may also be complicated. For example, improvements in hardware (e.g., robotic arms) are prototyped as physical embodiments and physically tested. Improvements in software (e.g., control algorithms for robotic arms) may also require physical embodiments. Such cyclical prototyping and testing is generally cumulatively expensive and time-consuming.